You have realized QA is not just “monkey clicking.” Now let’s overview the few most in-demand technical skills in the QA field.
Coding
Once you start the QA career, you quickly realize it’s helpful to know the basics of programming languages. This way, it becomes easier for a tester to understand the application functionalities, create tests accordingly, and do the automation testing. It also allows the testers and developers to communicate about the software more productively.
That doesn’t mean you have to become an expert in coding, but some basic knowledge can help you do your job, and it improves the possibility of getting a nice job in your field.
Basic knowledge of Database or SQL
Systems have lots of data in the background. It’s stored in different databases like MySQL, Oracle, MongoDB, etc. A tester will need to know some SQL queries to check the process and see whether the given data is stored in the backend databases.
Cross-browser testing skills
The point of cross-browser testing is making sure that the application works well, no matter on which browser or device (computer, mobile phone, Ipad) the user is on.
Testing techniques
Testing techniques are different ways to challenge the application to ensure it functions well and carries out the specific tasks it is supposed to.
The list of the techniques is quite long, but so is the list of situations that the tester is exposed to when testing the specific software. For example, there is a white box/black box testing, end-to-end testing, unit testing, system testing, security testing, and many more. A QA engineer must be familiar with them and know when to use them to get the best results.
Defect tracking tools
Defect Tracking is the crucial role of any software testing phase. It’s tough to manage defects properly and systematically track them. That’s why defect tracking tools, like BugHerd, Bugzilla, Jira, etc., can come in pretty handy.
Is that all?
This was a basic overview of technical skills. But this is not everything you need. Don’t forget to improve your soft skills as well :-).
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